Background: Personal smoke-free policies (home and vehicle) reduce secondhand smoke exposure, improve health, and increase quitting among smokers. Overall, 83.0% and 78.1% of Americans report smoke-free homes and vehicles, respectively. However, little is known about such policies among 2-year community college (CC) students, who represent a…

Objectives: One third of school-aged children in New York State (NYS) are overweight or obese, with large geographic disparities across local regions. We used NYS student obesity surveillance data to assess whether these geographical variations are attributable to the built environment. Method: We combined NYS Student Weight Status Category…

The current study examines classroom-level peer behavioral regulation skills and their implications for children's school readiness outcomes. Specifically, this study will answer the following research questions: (1) Is the average level of peers' behavioral regulation skills in a classroom in the fall associated with growth in children's school…

Given the growing importance of support needs assessment in the field of intellectual disability, it is imperative to develop assessments of support needs whose scores and inferences demonstrate reliability and validity. The purpose of this study was to examine the criterion validity of scores on the "Supports Intensity Scale-Children's…

Prior research shows that short-term effects from preschool may disappear, but little research has considered which environmental conditions might sustain academic advantages from preschool into elementary school. Using secondary data from two preschool experiments, we investigate whether features of elementary schools, particularly advanced…

Prior research shows that short-term effects from preschool may disappear, but little research has considered which environmental conditions might sustain academic advantages from preschool into elementary school. Using secondary data from two preschool experiments, we investigate whether features of elementary schools, particularly advanced…

We describe how a practical instructional development process helped a first-year assistant professor rapidly develop, implement, and assess the impact on her Analytical Chemistry course caused by three changes: (a) moving the lab into the same semester as the lecture, (b) developing a more collaborative classroom environment, and (c) increasing…

This paper synthesizes findings from the Research Alliance's investigation of teacher turnover in New York City's public middle schools. These years are widely recognized as a critical turning point for students, and the NYC Department of Education (DOE) is pursuing a range of middle school improvement initiatives. The stability of the middle…

There are currently 2 principal models of publicly funded prekindergarten programs (pre-K): targeted pre-K, which is means-tested, and universal pre-K. These programs often differ in terms of the economic characteristics of the preschoolers enrolled. Studies have documented links between individual achievement in school-age children and the…

This study explored the perceptions of teacher-student relationships and personal student safety differences between Caucasian and African-American middle school students. The research was conducted using a survey in a suburban middle class school on Long Island, New York. Twenty-eight of 176 Caucasian students were chosen through random sampling…

The concept of school climate has been an important topic for education and it has been studied extensively over the past several decades. One of the challenges in such a research effort is to develop instruments that effectively and efficiently measure the construct. Literature has documented a number of school climate instruments, most of which…

Recent research has shown that speakers are sensitive to non-contrastive phonetic detail present in nonnative speech (e.g. Escudero et al. 2012; Wilson et al. 2014). Difficulties in interpreting and implementing unfamiliar phonetic variation can lead nonnative speakers to modify second language forms by vowel epenthesis and other changes. These…

Higher education administrators face challenges in providing a welcoming environment for doctoral students in higher education institutions. Administrators need to identify factors influencing satisfaction of this group of students to provide a supportive environment, reduce attrition rates, and promote persistence. The purpose of this…

Districts are increasingly making personnel decisions based on teachers' impact on student-achievement gains and classroom observations. In some schools, however, a teacher's practices and their students' achievement may reflect not just individual but collaborative efforts. In other settings, teachers' instruction benefits less from the insights…

This study examined what elementary schools in New York State are doing to recognize lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) families in terms of curriculum, policies, and practices. In all, 116 school psychologists completed an online survey regarding their districts. Findings indicated that even though most school districts serve…